The little gift

Christopher dropped off his gift- he sautered the whole thing himself! Complete with LED lights and all.

The Final Packing

Today is my last day in San Jose. It feels nice. We had blueberry syrup-and-whipped-cream waffles this morning, sat around and enjoyed it all.

The Packing

I keep calling United and Luftansa to ask different agents the same set of questions. How much money to check 8 bags? Do you need to flag my reservation? What is the maximum weight? The stories are starting to be consistent.....:)

So on to packing, alot of donated pills, some educational materials, some housewares, my french press, lots of books, maybe a duvet (can't decide), some Ikea prints, and lots more. It is coming together. Good thing my sister Amy is handy to help me pack, write down what is going in what box, and make me an Americano when the afternoon is dragging.

Sunday morning will come quickly! I am excited and ready. Its just that my boxes aren't.

A hard, deep call to obedience

You are the God who makes extravagant promises.
We relish your great promises
of fidelity
and presence
and solidarity,
and we exude in them.
Only to find out, always too late,
that your promise always comes
in the midst of a hard, deep call to obedience.
You are the God who calls people like us,
and the long list of mothers and fathers before us,
who trusted the promise enough to keep the call.
So we give you thanks that you are a calling God,
who calls always to dangerous new places.
We pray enough of your grace and mercy among us
that we may be those
who believe your promises enough
to respond to your call.
We pray in the one who embodied your promise
and enacted your call, even Jesus. Amen.

In anticipation of reading Jeremiah 1-2
Walter Bruggemann

Madeleine L'Engle

I know too well now that I cannot live without poetry. Sometimes the power of words put together in poetry overwhelms me, often it draws me close to God in a new fresh way, it is always refreshing to me.

And Madeline L'Engle took me off guard with some of her poems. I think it is the element of emotion that comes at you like a surprise when you don't see where she's going, but she throws you into the center of human feeling.

From "When I pushed through the crowd." (See Mark 5:24-34)

No, it wasn't the leper,
or the man cured of palsy,
or any of the other stories of miracles,
or at any rate that was the least of it;
I had been promised miracles too often.
I saw him ahead of me in the crowd
and there was something in his glance
and in the way his hand rested briefly
on the matted head of a small boy
who was getting in everybody's way,
and I knew that if only I could get to him,
not to bother him, you understand,
not to interrupt, or to ask him for anything,
not even his attention,
just to get to him and touch him.....

The Size of the Task

I realized something yesterday. I was explaining to someone what I wanted to do in Ethiopia: develop a community health program in Langano. Help Ethiopian health care workers catch a vision for reaching their own villagers with holistic health care. Create a new model for health care that doesn't need lots of Westerners. Make a system that will spread itself, and take it to different parts of the country. I realized, whoa, this job is way, way too big for me. It is easy for me to think of all the reasons I am not equipped or right for the job: I am a labor nurse, never worked in community health, I am white, I draw attention, I need hot showers and Western food. And who says I know more about my faith than Ethiopian Christians living in the bush? I don't have enough experience, or knowledge, or the right degrees...

So, it must be the right job if it is too big. Why take a job that is a reasonable size? Is there no room for God to use me if I am willing to trust Him to help me? Didn't He lead to this point, exactly where I am standing right now? I am trusting Him and, strangely, I feel this job is just the right size.